A couple of days ago we tried to visit a friend in hospital in Palma. Our elderly Mallorcan friend had been involved in a rather bad accident. A motorist knocked him of his scooter and, being in a bad state, he was taken by ambulance to the Intensive Care Unit in Son Dureta‘s, and that’s where we wanted to visit him. We got there alright, but we were not allowed to see him. We did not know the valid visiting hours or had been misinformed. We were kept waiting for a good 30 minutes before we gave up and went back home again.

If you want to see someone at Son Dureta and in the Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos, you have to go between 08h00 and 08h30, 13h00 to 13h30 or 20h00 to 20h30, or not go at all. Visiting hours may be at different times somewhere else, but you better check before you go. If not, you may find yourself in front of closed doors, just like us (see photo).

Our friend, by the way, seems to be out of danger by now. He is no longer in a coma, and is expected to be discharged from the UCI either today or tomorrow. Not to his home yet, but a happy ending nevertheless, we hope.

The photo was taken in Palma de Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: February 23rd, 2010. The time was 14:23:53.